Monday, September 21, 2015

International Peace Day

Today, September 21, is International Peace Day. Working
for peace and peace as the flourishing of creation, not simply the absence of
violence, are frequent themes in my Ethical Musings' posts (e.g., cf. Bending
the arc of history toward peace).

On International Peace Day, I commend three themes:

Cultivate personal inner
peace. The path to inner peace lies in learning to trust that with God's help
all, in the words of Julian of Norwich, will be well. When things go
wrong, when bad things happen, the person with inner peace faces the
future with equanimity knowing that God holds the person firmly in God's hands.
Some Christians have found that exposure to Buddhism has helped them to
understand and to experience the possibility of genuine inner peace.

Cultivate relational
peace. The path to relational peace lies in learning to value and to
respect all other persons, life forms, and things as God's creations. Some
Christians have found helpful reminders about the possibility of relational
peace in studying Confucianism and Taoism. I particularly remember a
Chinese woman I met in London who had lived in Hawaii, been an Anglican
nun, and had taught aikido. Her memory reminds me of the
interconnectedness of the whole creation and that ultimately the goal of well-being
and flourishing is achievable only when achieved for all creation.

Strive to build
global peace. The path to global peace lies in expanding the scope of
inner peace and relational peace to include the whole earth. This entails both
building alliances with others who share the same goal and becoming active
in the political process. Building global peace requires individual and communal
effort. Forsaking war is one vital step. Forsaking economic and political exploitation
are two more steps. No one person or nation can take these steps
unilaterally.

What would your life, your relationships, and the
world be like if every day each of us took a step to incarnate those three
themes?